By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: January 25, 2012

reddirtreporter@gmail.com

CD REVIEW:  R.E.M. – Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982-2011 (Warner Bros.)  2011

It finally happened. R.E.M. has officially broken up and to cash in on this event, R.E.M. and Warner Bros. decided to release a “best of” collection featuring most of their hits and singles released between 1982 and 2011.

There have been a few R.E.M. “best of” collections over the years, including Eponymous, released by I.R.S. Records right after they bolted that label for Warner Bros. and recorded their big-and-bold 1988 album Green, the album that launched them into the rock stratosphere.

But now that Athens, Ga.-based R.E.M. are now effectively history, they have put out a two-disc collection – 40 tracks in all - of great singles, although some are notably missing, like “Can’t Get There From Here” (1985); “Drive” (1992); “All the Way To Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star)” (2001) and three great singles from 1995’s Monster – “Bang and Blame,” “Strange Currencies,” and “Crush With Eyeliner.” What gives, guys?

Anyway, what we are given is certainly representative of the tremendous output Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry (at least up to the mid-90’s) released over their history. I was a fan since the Document days and they were a big part of my life from ’87 until ’95. I think their best stuff came out during that period. When it came down to U2 or R.E.M., I tended to fall in the R.E.M. camp. An R.E.M. album release was an event.

It’s interesting re-listening to a lot of these songs. Check out “Gardening at Night,” a jangly number and one of their first “real songs,” Stipe offers in the liner notes. But then there is Peter Buck’s psychedelic flourishes during the breakdowns courtesy of an electric sitar! It sounds so good and who was making that kind of music in 1982?

And then there is the live, bouncy ring of “Sitting Still,” a track from Murmur that, while not a single in 1983, fits in perfectly.

With the music released in chronological order, we get the strong I.R.S. material, tracks like the moody “Driver 8,” the pretty “Fall On Me” and the urgent melancholia of “Life and How To Live It,” with that interplay between Buck’s guitar and Mills’ steady bassline. And with the 1987 Document singles, like the Top 10 “The One I Love” and the frat-house classic “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” we hear a very confident rock band on the verge of international success.

That would come with their Top 10 hit from Green in the form of the poppy “Stand” single. A trifle to be sure (and a popular song I would play at a Wichita skating rink as a deejay in those days) it still holds up well, as do all the singles from Green represented here – “Pop Song ’89,” “Get Up” and “Orange Crush.” R.E.M. was at the top of their game and getting bigger.

We see that with their biggest hit, “Losing My Religion,” from 1991’s Out Of Time. This was one played at my senior high prom, in fact. R.E.M. was officially huge and a song featuring a mandolin was a neat little extra.

“Country Feedback” is here as well, although not a hit. Some “garbage,” methinks. A great song, one that takes time to embrace. And then there’s “Shiny Happy People,” a song that was criticized as dumb but it’s really a fun, jangly tune and sounds great 20 years later. In fact, during a trip to Athens, Ga. in early ’93, I met the old man on the bike in the “Shiny Happy People” video and passed by Michael Stipe’s house – the one with the red porch light. Hmmm.

The second disc takes us further into the 1990’s R.E.M. with “Man On the Moon,” “Everybody Hurts,” the beautiful and haunting ballad “Nightswimming” and ballsy rockers like “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” from 1995.

From here on out to the end things get a bit spotty. The obscure “New Test Leper” ends up on here for some strange reason. Not a particularly strong track. The same can be said for “Electrolite” and the stuff after drummer Bill Berry left following a health scare. Songs like “The Great Beyond” and “Imitation of Life” hold up better than you’d think but latter-day R.E.M. tracks like “Leaving New York” “Supernatural Superserious” just don’t quite grab you. This was when R.E.M. was in a sort of musical wilderness.

Now, it was less than a year ago that I reviewed their final studio album, Collapse Into Now. We get three tracks from that album and three new/previously unreleased songs. Of those, “A Month Of Saturdays” has a jaunty, angular pop feel that Mike Mills says is a tribute to the late Randy Bewley of Athens band Pylon, the band that R.E.M. said was the best band in America in 1987.

And finally, I want to mention the beautiful, final single by R.E.M. – “We All Go Back To Where We Belong.” It has a dreamy, 70’s vibe to it, complete with Burt Bacharach horns, a twangy guitar from Buck and an earnest vocal from Stipe. A fitting track to help conclude the career of one of America’s best bands ever.

Copyright 2012 West Marie Media